Various forms of merchandising machines are known in the prior art. For example, there are known machines of the type in which a helix receiving articles between adjacent turns thereof is driven to advance the leading article over the edge of a shelf or the like to permit it to fall to a delivery area. Machines of this type may be provided with a multiplicity of such helices together with selectively operable means for driving the helices to deliver different articles. These machines are especially adapted to dispense light articles such as bagged snacks.
Machines of the prior art of the type described above incorporate a number of disadvantages. Machines of the type described above are difficult to load. Owing to the complexity of the helix itself, cleaning of the machines is difficult.
We have invented a versatile merchandising machine which overcomes the disadvantages of machines of the prior art pointed out hereinabove. Our machine is easy to load. The merchandise holding parts of our machine are readily disassembled for cleaning and readily reassembled.